Nigerian Military in Adamawa have shut down all venues preparing to screen live World Cup matches, hoping to stave off the kind of attacks that have killed more than 20 people in the past two weeks.

Boko Haram militants have set off a car bomb that killed 18 people watching a game on television at a centre in the Adamawa settlement of Gavan.

With the attacks, fears continue to grow as the possibilities of the violent sect attacking television viewing centres across the state targeting supporters gathering to cheer during the tournament.

“Our action is not to stop Nigerians … watching the World Cup. It is to protect their lives,” Brigadier-General Nicholas Rogers told Reuters on Wednesday in Yola, the capital of northeastern Adamawa state, which has been hit regularly by Boko Haram raids.

Nigeria has seen an increasingly bold series of attacks over the past five years by the Islamist militants called Boko Haram, including the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in April.